The Cockettes

Fayette HauserKreemah, 1970
Gelatin silver print
KREEMAH RITZ PAPERS
The Cockettes (1969-1972) blazed like a dazzling, slightly frayed comet through the
psychedelic landscape of San Francisco, creating a spectacular, subversive theater of
gender pandemonium. A young New York stage actor named George Harris came to San
Francisco in 1968, renamed himself Hibiscus, and in the context of communal living,
drugs and revolutionary ideals, became a visionary dedicated to free art and theater,
founding the Cockettes. Hibiscus took to the streets in fabulous, ceremonial hippie drag,
attracting and inﬂuencing an eclectic group of gay men and straight women. Their daily
life of dressing up, playacting, and sexual exploration led to the routines of a wildly
transgressive theater troupe. Sylvester, one of the early members of the Cockettes, went
on to have a stellar career as a chart-topping singer and performer.

Transformed by thrift-store ﬁnery and elaborate makeup, the Cockettes performed
inspired midnight shows at the Palace Theater in San Francisco’s North Beach
neighborhood. Early productions such as Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma, and Gone with
the Showboat to Oklahoma, were characterized by an anarchic, absurdist sensibility,
non-narrative singing and dancing, and fantastically tawdry glamour. In Pearls Over
Shanghai the Cockettes created their ﬁrst all-original script, music, and lyrics. Their
growing audience, decked out for the occasion, fueled the ecstatic energy. New shows
were presented every few weeks and were important events for the hip and culturally
adventurous.

Concert tickets
1974 and 1979
KREEMAH RITZ PAPERS
As word about the Cockettes’ shows spread to the East Coast, the group was undergoing
internal difﬁculties—Hibiscus and several others dedicated to free theater, left to form
the Angels of Light, and the remaining Cockettes went to New York for a highly anticipated
three-week run. Celebrities and socialites turned out in droves, but the joyously
amateurish spirit of the Cockettes was lost on sophisticated New Yorkers. Returning to
San Francisco, the Cockettes’ unique alchemy continued long enough to produce several of
their most successful shows and a lasting legacy.

The Hormel Center is fortunate to have a collection of rare Cockettes materials, donated
by Kreemah Ritz, an original member of the group. Included in the collection are
photographs from the production of the Cockettes' 1971 ﬁlm Trisha [Tricia] Nixon's Wedding
(other ﬁlms include Elevator Girls in Bondage and Luminous Procuress), The Cockettes
Paper Doll Book, publicity posters, and performance stills, including Kreemah Ritz as Miss
Liberty.